


Boyfriend or Books?

by vix_spes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Insecurity, M/M, Marauders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 17:57:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1657313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/pseuds/vix_spes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As far as Sirius is concerned, the only downside to being Remus Lupin’s boyfriend is that sometimes Sirius can’t work out who (or what) Remus loves best; Sirius or books.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boyfriend or Books?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [prplhez8 (hez_writes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hez_writes/gifts).



You would think that, considering it had been three years since Sirius had first persuaded Remus to go out with him, Sirius would be used to this, that it wouldn’t bother him but that wasn’t the case. The ‘this’ in question was Remus and his love of books. Or rather it was the fact that Remus was currently spending far too much time with his beloved books and not enough time with Sirius.

In the early days, Sirius would complain about the number of hours that Remus would spend closeted away in the library but then Remus would give him this pleading look that made Sirius feel awful for having asked. That pleading look was the reason that, even now, if the Marauders got caught then Remus was shoved to the front in the hope that he would be able to talk them out of trouble. Nine times out of ten it was successful, particularly with the female professors.

The problem was, Sirius had already been feeling that he didn’t get enough time with Remus; a fairly impressive feat considering that they obviously shared a dormitory. Ever since they had started at Hogwarts, Sirius had felt that he had been fighting books and the library for Remus’ attention. The minute that Remus had seen the Hogwarts library he had fallen in love and, even after James and Sirius had coaxed him out of his shell, he could be found in there as often as possible. That hadn’t changed once the Marauders as they called themselves had become truly inseparable and even once he and Sirius had started dating. James and Sirius had both been overheard to exclaim on numerous occasions that their respective girlfriend and boyfriend spent more time with each other in the library then they did with them. Sirius had been heard to jokingly announce that he was fairly certain his boyfriend was more in love with books than with him.

He may have joked about it in the past but Sirius couldn’t deny that, in a period where he was floundering personally, he found himself somewhat resenting the amount of time that Remus spent in the library and on his schoolwork. Then of course he felt guilty because it wasn’t as easy for Remus as it was for Sirius and that would become only more apparent when they left Hogwarts. Sirius may have lost his family through their own bigoted views but the Potter’s had taken him in and he knew that he would, in all probability, be able to walk into a job once he graduated. If he kept his grades as they were, he would easily have the necessary marks to get into the Auror Academy.

It wasn’t that easy for Remus. His mum had died when he was in his third year and, while his dad loved him, Lyall Lupin continually struggled with the knowledge that Remus had to deal with lycanthropy as a result of something Lyall had said. It was for this reason Sirius knew that Remus was working so hard in the hopes of getting the best possible marks that he could. Logically, Sirius knew all of this and understood it but that didn’t always help. If Remus was this bad now then what was he going to be like during their actual NEWT year? All of this was compounded by the fact that they had just returned from the Christmas holidays and Sirius had seen far less of Remus than he would have liked.

It had been the first Christmas that Sirius had spent where he was no longer welcome as part of the Black family and even though the Potter’s had treated him as they did James, not to the mention that the celebrations were infinitely more festive, Sirius had missed Remus. It hadn’t helped that the full moon had occurred over the New Year but because nobody knew that the Marauders had succeeded with the Animagus transformation, they had been unable to spend it with Remus. Essentially, what all of this had resulted in was an unhappy Sirius, sulking and pouting in the corner of the common room that the Marauders had long ago claimed for themselves. His head snapped up as he was hit in the head by what turned out to be a wrapped chocolate frog thrown by James.

“What the hell was that for Prongs?”

“Stop moping over Moony. You’re worse than I was over Lily.”

Sirius managed a weak grin. “Nobody could be worse than you pining over the lovely Lily, Jamie-boy.”

Sirius dodged the Tarantallegra jinx James sent his way in response, although the third year behind him wasn’t quite so lucky. “Well if you’re so lucky in love, what do you suggest? Nothing I’ve tried has worked. Those damn books are more interesting than I am apparently. Not to mention you and Wormtail always seem to be in the dorm.”

“I thought you were supposed to be intelligent Padfoot? What about the Room of Requirement? Get him up there with some of his favourite chocolate and you’re sorted. You could get out to Honeydukes tomorrow by the one-eyed witch passage.”

And then James was spluttering, trying to wipe his cheek as Sirius bounded over and planted a particularly wet kiss on James’ cheek.

“Prongs, you are a genius. Thank you!”

  
(~*~)

  
The following evening, Sirius put his plan into action. He had paid a secret trip to Honeydukes and bought a stash of Remus’ favourite chocolate. He had checked that Remus wasn’t on prefect duty and everything was looking good. All he had to do was get Remus out of the library and that was going to be the hardest task. James had enlisted Lily’s help to ensure that as many of the books that Remus would need were hidden or taken out. With none of the books, hopefully it would be easier to persuade Remus out.

It was all going wonderfully well. Remus had come back to the common room in a bit of a sulk so it had been easy for Sirius to lure him back out under the promise of hot chocolate from the kitchens. Not that he had any intention of letting Remus get anywhere near the kitchens. Just like pretty much everybody else at Hogwarts, the house elves adored Remus and if they did go down to the kitchen, then they would never leave and Sirius’ plans would be completely ruined. Thankfully, Remus was babbling away about some extra-credit project he was doing for Professor Flitwick and didn’t seem to notice that instead of descending into the depths of Hogwarts, they were actually climbing up to the seventh floor. It proved just how distracted Remus was by his charms project that he didn’t even realise where they were in Hogwarts until Sirius started pacing backwards and forwards.

“Sirius? We’re not in the kitchens…”

“No Remus, we’re not in the kitchens. This is the Room of Requirement.”

“I’ve never heard of it. It’s not mentioned in Hogwarts: A History. Where did you hear about it?”

“Shock horror, something isn’t mentioned in your favourite book.” Sirius couldn’t help the sarcastic tone that slipped into his voice then regretted it when Remus heard every single word due to his bloody Lycan-enhanced hearing.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

To Sirius’ relief, the door to the Room of Requirement appeared and he dragged Remus inside before he could reply. It wouldn’t do for them to be overheard by somebody and punished for something that was supposed to be a lovely idea and was rapidly going downhill.

“It means that at the moment it feels as though it’s a competition between me, your boyfriend, and your beloved books. A competition that your books are easily winning.”

For a moment, Sirius thought that his words were going to start an unholy row – exactly the opposite of what he had been planning – but then Remus seemed to look around for the first time, truly seeing the room that Sirius had envisioned complete with the huge gift basket of Remus’ favourite chocolate from Honeydukes that Sirius had just resized and deflated. Sirius could practically see the cogs in Remus’ mind working as he mentally rewound the last few months. It was patently obvious when Remus reached his conclusion because he seemed to just crumple and sent Sirius the most pitiful look Sirius had ever seen. He would have to remember to tell James that he won the bet about whether werewolves could pull off the puppy-dog eye look; they really, really could.

“I’m sorry Siri; I haven’t exactly been the best boyfriend have I?”

Sirius promptly proceeded to panic about how to respond appropriately. Diplomacy wasn’t his strong suit; he didn’t know how to do it. After all, that was why James and Sirius had Lily and Remus as their better halves; not only for the fact that they loved them but because the two prefects were good at all the things that James and Sirius weren’t. Thankfully, he was saved from responding by Remus moving in closer for a hug that Sirius was all too willing to give.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that with exams and you know, _Moony_ , I have to do everything that I can. I can’t give them any excuses to…”

“I know. Just, try not to do it again? You have a boyfriend who loves you and would quite like to spend time with you now and again.”

“I promise, I’ll try.” Remus leant in and kissed Sirius sweetly, something Sirius greatly appreciated having been mostly ignored recently. “For the record, you would win over books every time.”

“You’re only saying that because I brought you chocolate.”

Remus smiled and gave Sirius another kiss, even though his attention was already on the Honeydukes gift basket. “Not only because …”

**Author's Note:**

> If you would prefer to comment on LJ, you can do so [here](http://vix-spes.livejournal.com/163228.html)


End file.
